Street Art Pops in Chardon | Geauga Times Courier

Some four years in the making, the utility box wrap project began when Chardon Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melissa Ricco noticed colorful utility boxes near Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University.

She soon learned that other communities, including Painesville and Shaker Heights, had wrapped their utility boxes, too.

Envisioning what could be done in Chardon, Ms. Ricco took the idea to the Chardon Square Association– and was met with a lukewarm response.

“We had to restart again,” she said.

What sets Chardon’s box-wraps apart is local artwork. Painesville and Shaker Heights used designers or out-of-town artists.

The original plan was to wrap the boxes using historic city photos provided by the Chardon branch of Geauga County Public Library, but once enlarged, the photos were too pixelated.

So Ms. Ricco turned to Ms. Gorton, whose work was displayed at Beans Coffee Shop on Chardon Square.

“When I pitched it, she took it and ran with it,” Ms. Ricco said.

At first, Gorton wasn’t sure she could handle the project.

The Chardon native, who works at Sages Apples Fruit Farm, had branched out over the last several years after her mother, Jennifer Gorton, posted some of her artwork on Facebook

“I got my first commission,” she said. “Then – it was Christmas – the number kept growing.”

This new notoriety prompted Beans Coffee Shop owner Sylvia McGee to invite her to hang artwork on shop walls.

It caught Ms. Ricco’s attention.

For the wrap project, Ms. Gorton was tasked with using historic photos to create colorful art for three sides of six utility boxes.

The first wrapped utility box, at North and Center Street in front of the Geauga County Courthouse, is Maple Festival-themed. The second, at Water and South Street on Chardon Square’s southwest corner, features paintings of the Square a century ago, including a streetcar and the Chardon Assembly of God which dates to 1888.

“At first, I wasn’t sure what to do, but I talked to my grandmother and she suggested local events. I thought it was a wonderful idea,” Ms. Gorton said.

The painted scenes were transferred to a sticky-backed contact-type vinyl paper by Chardon’s graphics shop 10Ten Design, then coated and wrapped around the boxes.

Although the project took several months, Ms. Gorton said if her one or two hours of daily work were compressed, they would total three or four days.

While satisfied with the finished product, Ms. Gorton said that its very public nature is stressful.

“As an artist, I always see stuff, but the pictures are nice,” she said.

She said she was surprised to be asked to cut the red ribbon at the utility box wrap ribbon-cutting last week.

About 20 people attended, including ribbon-holders Chardon Mayor Chris Grau and 10Ten’s Joe Zurlandt along with Chamber and Chardon Square leaders.

The wraps are expected to last about seven years.

At that point, Ms. Gorton says they may be reprinted or perhaps replaced.

“Who knows?” she said. “Maybe I’ll want another crack at it.”

When it comes to wrapping the other four utility boxes, Ms. Ricco plans to draft a proposal that pitches them as advertising opportunities for local businesses.

Themes being considered are the local railroad station, agriculture, school spirit — for the box in front of Chardon High School — and other representations of Geauga County.

Each boldly decorated utility box has a QR code linking visitors to a walking tour and historic information.

“I didn’t want them to be boring,” Ms. Ricco said. “We need a pop of color, especially against the snow.”

If the new utility box wraps turn out to feature more of Ms. Gorton’s paintings, that will be just fine.

“The artwork is absolutely outstanding,” Ms. Ricco said. “I don’t have a lick of artistic talent in my bones, so it floors me.”